Friday was race day! It was an early start as HammerKing wanted the car in staging by 6:30am for the 8:00am start. We got the car warmed up and topped off will fuel and headed into staging. While we were in staging, we had a quick chat with the 4500 class car that was starting next to us, we both had the same idea that the gap jump wasn’t worth the risk in the first 30seconds of an all-day race. We were also carrying ~20 gallons of fuel, a lot more water, and more tools off the starting line than we ran qualifying with. The plus side of the early staging was that they were able to have all the cars come out onto the infield for the national anthem.
We did have one bit of drama before the start since one of the sub straps on my belts didn’t get fished back through after pulling the seat out during tech. It took about 20 minutes of fishing around under my seat to get it back through the hole in the bottom of the seat. With that issue resolved and the national anthem over it was time to get in and tighten the belts. At 8:00am the leaders started heading out! we slowing inched our way to the starting line. 3 more rows of cars to go something happened on the gap jump and they quit starting more cars. Aaron switched our radio over to race ops and learned that someone had rolled their car in the landing of the gap jump. It wasn’t until after the race that we learned it was Duane Garretson. After what was one of the longest ~15-20 minutes race ops resumed starting cars. When it was finally our turn and the green flag dropped, we beat the #4532 off the line, after making the right turn immediately after the start we saw the cones and tape across the entry to the gap jump, which was a surprise but not a problem for us! We stuck to our original plan to take the bypass and started building a good gap between us and the #4532.
We settled in for the rough cross wash leaving Hammer Town and started trying to chase down the cars in front of use. Thanks to the delay in starting the dust wasn’t very bad at all. Now that we were pushing the car at race pace the soft front end was very noticeable and was slowing our pace relative to previous races. I had to back off some to try not to over drive the car and stop slamming through the bump stops.
Roughly a third of the way through lap one we finally started to catch up to cars in front of us. I am not brave enough to push at race pace in dust that I can’t see through. As such we were waiting until multiple lanes and a favorable wind direction opened up an opportunity for us to make a pass. While being too conservative someone in a Bomber chassis passed up through dust and downwind. But we were not going to make a poor choice and risk the race, so we patiently waited and made the first pass of the day. We continued and started reeling in the next car. We were passed again by a 4500 car while working through dust, as the course turned back towards Hammertown the wind shifted, and we were able to make another pass. At this point the wind was keeping the dust clear, and we were able to really open it up and where making great time through the desert lap. At this point I think we were in the working into the ~15 minute gap of clear air created by the delay during the start. We had made good time out to the dry lake, with the only hiccup being caught by what looked like a Trent fab car. We made it through Emerson ridge and to the bypass trail of Aftershock, we then caught a 4500 car that slowly climbing the hill in what appeared to be 2wd. This section of the course was a narrow track in a canyon with almost no wind. The dust kicked up from the 4500 car slowed us to a crawl, it took a while to drive through the dust and get around them. We passed by remote pit as planned. Our crew informed us that we were only a few minutes behind the planned pace that should put us in the top ten. Then after about a mile and a half outside of the remote pit the steering started to feel off, then a few seconds later I lost all ability to turn. Feeling gutted I pulled off the course, well just drove in the direction the car was pointing until I was off the course as I had no steering. We hopped out of the car and found the right-side hydraulic line to the fail had failed….
Aaron got on the radio and let the pit crew know why we were stopped and which parts we needed out of the trailer. I had two spare lines in a box, we let the crew at main pit know that we needed the box with spare blue hoses in it. I took off running to remote pit and Aaron got to work pulling the old hose out. I got into remote pit before the SxS made it to Hammer Town. After ~10 minutes the SxS showed up, but they had grabbed the wrong box!! This is my fault as I had one box labeled spare hose, which included all the spare hoses but the two power steering lines. Which were in the box labeled plumbing due to space limitations in the spare hose box. I sent the SxS back to Hammer Town to get the other box. After ~1 hour they where back and I took off running back to the car. Aaron started getting the spare line back in the car while I caught my breath. Soon I was able to start helping him zip tie the line back in place, we also added ~1/2 quart of transmission fluid to get the level back to full. Aaron had noticed that we were leaking a decent amount from the inspection/dust cover on the bell housing. With the line back and the transmission full we got back in and belted up to continue racing. Then after about 10 more miles the throttle cable broke right at the pedal. We pulled off the course again, got the hood of and re -routed the cable through the “windshield” and into the cab zip tying the housing to intrusion bars so I could grab the cable with my hand and we could continue on. We let the crew at the main pit know what happened and where to find the spare throttle cable in the parts boxes.
In hindsight the throttle cable failed since the pedal was stopping within the actual throttle body. Before V2R I had modified the throttle pedal to improve ergonomics and accommodate other drivers better (we were swapping drivers at V2R) before the modification the pedal assembly bottomed out at the same time as the throttle body, afterwards the throttle body bottomed out before the assembly, so the cable was getting the full force of me bracing when at full throttle.
At main pit we got the throttle cable replaced and headed out for Lap 2.
After all the stoppages the desert section of lap 2 was empty, allowing us to make good time only having to get around some stock class cars that were having a bad day like us. We did notice that our transmission temperature was pushing 260°F. My transmission temperature sensor is in the pan. But it wasn’t climbing past 260°F so we pushed on. We got to the first rock trail, After Shock, with no issues. At the start of the rocks, I shifted into 4 low and started working our way through the trail, after about ~1 minute in Aftershock there was a terrible metal on metal scrapping noise coming from underneath the transmission tunnel. We also started to work through all the broken race cars that were plugging the normal lines in Aftershock. One of the other cars navigators noticed the noise and took a look under the car, he thought it was the inspection/dust cover on the bell housing. The noise continued as we made our way through Aftershock, shifted to 4 high and the noise was gone, but our transmission temp had also dropped down to its normal temperature of ~190-200°F. We made our way over to the remote pit.
At remote pit the crew checked the transmission fluid level and had to add two quarts of fluid to see anything on the dip stick….
Aaron and discussed our options and after being stopped for ~3-4 hours for other mechanical issues, the terrible noise, and the transmission fluid loss rate we decided to throw in towel before we blew up the transmission in the middle of the more difficult rocks and force our crew into a nighttime recovery… It still stings that we didn’t push for a finish….
After Hammers the to do list stands at:
- Figure out the soft front end:
- Are the springs worn out?
- Can shock valves get worn out?
- Did the local shop that I had rebuild the shocks screw up the valving my tuner installed?
- Address the transmission cooling issue:
- Hood louvers?
- Larger transmission cooler?
- Order a new radiator
